September 28, 1997: Apple debuts its iconic “Think Different” ad campaign. The television commercial aligns the troubled computer company with some of history’s most celebrated freethinking rebels.
The most famous tagline in Apple history, “Think Different” doesn’t just articulate how Cupertino differs from its competitors. It also highlights how Apple, under the leadership of CEO Steve Jobs, will forge a future far different from its floundering, money-losing days of the early 1990s.
August 8, 1997: At Macworld Expo, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introduces the world to the company’s new slogan, “Think different.” The catchy marketing reassures fans that Apple is exiting its mid-1990s dark age and once again making products customers will love.
It’s the beginning of Apple’s most iconic advertising campaign since the original “1984” Macintosh ad.
Apple ended its famous “Think different” ad campaign more than 20 years ago, so perhaps it’s time for a reboot. Business.com challenged a generative AI to create new ads for the classic campaign featuring more current entertainment icons. The images produced for the AI-powered “Think Different” update look surprisingly good.
See for yourself.
Whether you’re nostalgic for early Macintoshes or you simply like the cuter things in life, Shargeek has the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for you. You can join the campaign at a low, early-bird price to get the company’s new Retro 35 GaN Charger. It looks just like a toy version of an original Macintosh, complete with a little smile on its screen.
And with 35W of power, it can readily charge up laptops, tablets and smartphones.
The outside ad agency dedicated to Apple marketing was hit with a big round of layoffs this week.
Media Arts Lab cut about 50 employees across multiple divisions of the company. Owned by Apple’s longtime ad partner TBWA Worldwide, Media Arts Lab counts Apple as its only client. The Los Angeles based company helps Apple come up with advertisements for many of its popular products, but is facing changes as Apple’s needs evolve.
Apple just dropped a brand new Mac ad in the United Kingdom.
It’s all about making music and it features a whole bunch of big artists using Apple computers. It’s also a little reminiscent of the company’s old and iconic Think Different commercial.
Lee Clow, the founder of Apple’s creative agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab and TBWA global director of media arts, is retiring at the age of 73.
A friend of Steve Jobs for three decades, Clow played a crucial role in the creation of some of Apple’s most iconic advertising campaigns. (As well as a whole lot of other, non-Apple ads.)
If you think Apple has lost its innovation mojo, these T-shirts are for you.
Throwboy’s new iWantMore line expresses the frustration of anybody irritated by iOS bugs or underwhelmed by the MacBook Pro.
Apple is suing Swatch over the Swiss watchmaker’s “Tick different” trademark.
Apple claims the trademark is a play on the “Think different” slogan it used for an iconic ad campaign in the late 1990s. To win the legal battle, Cupertino must prove that at least 50 percent of consumers associate the phrase with Apple branding.
Having developed the world’s first commercial antivirus software, John McAfee now wants to clean the malware out of politics — and he’s using one of Apple’s most iconic advertising mantras to do so.
Libertarian presidential candidate McAfee’s new ad encourages American citizens to “Vote Different,” and uses the same verbiage as Apple’s famous “Think Different” ads from 1997. But it features footage of figures like Ron Paul, Aaron Schwartz, Jeffrey Tucker, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk instead of the historical figures in Apple’s ad.
Is it enough to take him into the White House? Check it out below to make up your own mind!
Almost a decade-and-a-half after Apple last used its “Think different” advertising slogan, a trademark update proves the company does not plan to retire its iconic mantra. The company recently updated its claim to the “Think different” trademark for the first time since 2009 with a new European Patent and Trademark Office filing.
We don’t know if Apple head Tim Cook’s office got a good going-over before ABC News stopped by last night, but we like to think that it’s always that tidy.
The CEO appeared on World News Tonight to discuss privacy and the company’s ongoing conflict with the FBI, but it was significant for another reason. And both Cook and anchor David Muir couldn’t help but point it out.
“Thanks for having us in your office,” Muir said. “I don’t think we’ve ever done an interview in your office before.”
“I’m not sure I’ve ever done an interview in the office,” Cook replied.
So what does the head of Apple keep handy when he’s hard at work? A lot of cool stuff, actually.
Apple co-founder and visionary CEO Steve Jobs passed away three years ago today, at the age of 56.
In addition to co-creating the company with Steve Wozniak in 1976, Jobs personally oversaw the creation of the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes and OS X — as well as funding Pixar during its rise to prominence.
While there are plenty of great videos featuring Jobs to mark the occcasion (anyone with the slightest bit of interest in working in tech should make a point of viewing all of his Apple keynotes) the below is one of my personal favorites. It features Jobs, less than three months into his 1997 return, talking at an internal meeting about his vision for taking the company forward.
From sledgehammer-tossing freedom fighters to misunderstood teenagers at Christmas, Apple’s TV commercials have hit us with some truly iconic imagery over the years. But when a company has been around since the 1970s, it’s no great surprise that a select few ads would slip our collective memory.
After scouring through hundreds of big-time commercials and tiny TV spots that promoted Cupertino’s products over the years, here are our picks for the Apple advertisements that time forgot. All of them are worthy of a second look — and almost all of them for the right reasons.
Wow, this is incredible. Redditor Kepgnar works in the tech department of a charter school. Every month, one of the departments has to put together a message for the school’s official announcement chalkboard.
Here’s what Kepgnar came up with: a meticulously drawn “Think Different.” logo with an actually working QR code which, when scanned, leads to the YouTube version of the original commercial narrated by Steve Jobs.
How’d Kepgnar do the QR code? They designed it, then projected it onto the chalkboard and traced it. Talk about thinking differently.
Source: Reddit
Guy Kawasaki was one of the Apple employees behind the legendary marketing of its 1984 Macintosh, and he’s well known among the Apple community for being a former evangelist of the Cupertino company. You might think, then, that when Kawasaki’s phone rings, it’s an iPhone he pulls out of his pocket.
Well that couldn’t be further from the truth. Kawasaki’s a diehard Android fan, and he has been for about a year. He no longer uses any iOS products at all — not even an iPad.
Here’s something cool you may not have noticed yet. With its new Keynote update, released alongside Pages and Numbers yesterday, Apple replaced the unique icon that features the somewhat depressing lyrics to The Bitch of the Living by Spirit Awakening with a new 2012 icon that displays a famous quote from the company’s Think Different commercial. The same quote now appears on several of Apple’s Mac OS X icons.
It’s not uncommon for Apple to hide little treats within the icons of its Mac apps, but it’s always nice when we stumble across a new one. The latest comes with the new Notes application that will launch in OS X Mountain Lion next month, and it contains a famous quote used in Apple’s Think Different ad campaign.
Author of the new book, “Insanely Simple,” Ken Segall got to do something most can only dream about: work one-on-one with Steve Jobs, creating some of Apple’s most iconic products and ad campaigns.
From naming the iMac, to helping develop Apple’s famous Think Different ad campaign, Ken has 12 years of stories to tell about what it’s really like to work with the man most of us Apple fans revere: Steve Jobs. And on episode 10 of The CultCast, Ken opens up on who Steve was, what his creative process was like, and the best ways to not get yelled at.
To hear Ken’s fascinating insights and amazing first-hand accounts, subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes.
Have you ever wondered what it was like behind the scenes of Apple’s famous ‘Think Different’ advertising campaign? The 1997 ad was mainly attributed to Steve Jobs in Walter Isaacson’s biography, but there’s more to how it all went down.
An advertising executive that helped create the campaign has taken to Forbes to set the record straight, and the truth is that Steve Jobs originally hated the very ad that brought Apple back from the brink of destruction.
Looking for last minute gift ideas for the proud rebel or misfit in your life? What about this beautiful letterpressed poster by Brightwurks replicates the full text of Steve Jobs’s iconic 1997 “Crazy Ones” ad, with all proceeds going to Acumen Fund, a charity that helps relieve poverty.
The poster is printed on 140# paper and measures 10 inches wide by 26 inches tall. It’s stunningly beautiful, but letterpress isn’t cheap: expect to pay $95 for it unframed, or $195 framed. Full poster can be seen below.
We’ve mentioned before that TextEdit’s icon under OS X has Apple’s entire “Think Different” essay written on it, if you blow it up big enough.But this one’s new to us: it also appears in its majority on Lion’s new All My Files icon.
Here’s to the crazy ones indeed… crazy to write an entire essay on an icon meant to be rendered in less than 80 pixels squared. Very cool.
[via Finer Things In Mac]